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Jackson Buck, host of KFAI's Freewheelin', curates a night of live music every first Friday of the month at Harriet Brewing! On Friday, September 5th, it's The Swamp Poppas. Plus, Gabe Barnett opens at 7:00.

The Swamp Poppas play a mix of tunes from southwest Louisiana and the surrounding country. Lots of Swamp Pop with a little Zydeco, Cajun, Swamp Blues and and Louisiana Rock n' Roll.

The band came together while providing backing support for the yearly Swamp Pop Extravaganza Concert benefiting Second Harvest.

They enjoyed playing together so much they decided to get together more than once a year. When the gents play you can usually expect some of the featured vocalists and instrumentalists from the Extravaganza to show up and try some new tunes or just get in a little practice. Recent gigs saw Rich Lewis and Lucinda Plaisance sitting in to sing some Bobby Charles and Irma Thomas classics.

Gabe Barnett: "In a land of 10,000 Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan wannabes, Gabe Barnett seems like the most fitting victim to compare to those folk icons. But to do so would imply something less than genuine about this fiercely independent, grassroots folk singer. He embodies the spirit of the wandering troubadour, to be sure, but there are no gimmicks or mimicry to his music. When he sings, he stands up tall and raises his eyebrows toward the ceiling, projecting his words into the room with the unabashed earnestness that so many indie-folk kids are trying desperately to achieve. Barnett has stumbled onto the key that could unlock and then unravel the whole neo-folk movement:

If you want to seem sincere, you have to mean it. He works as a full-time musician, surviving off the meager profits of his songs, traveling with a guitar on his back, so when he sings about the evils of consumerism and the search for freedom, his words carry weight. In true West Bank folk-singer tradition, catch him gigging at clubs like Palmer's Bar and the new Acadia Cafe before the wind picks up and carries him away." -City Pages